Archdiocese of Liverpool Justice & Peace Commission

Diocese of Shrewsbury Commission for the Promotion of Justice, Peace & Social Responsibility

Justice and Peace

Issue 103 Autumn 2018 In this issue ......

Eucharistic Congress Parallel Programme 2 & 3 Report on Swanwick 2018 4 Season of Creation 5 Reflection - Eucharist and Poverty 6 & 7 Creation Season 7 Your Local Pantry 7

Which CAP? 7 SaintOscar Romero 8 & 9 Celebrating 20 years of Debt Justice 9

Chester - Newport peace train 9 Death penalty - Sr Helen Prejean 10 & 11

Dates and addresses 12

Peace demands the most heroic labour and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience. ― Thomas Merton

God is not satisfied with appearance.

God wants the garment of justice.

God wants his Christians dressed in love.

— Oscar Romero

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The Bishops of England and Wales are holding a National Eucharistic Pilgrimage and Congress "Adoremus" in Liverpool on 7 - 9 September 2018

THE PARALLEL PROGRAMME This aims to support the event in the Echo Arena by exploring a wide understanding of Eucharist and providing events for those who couldn’t get tickets for the main event.

ALL THESE EVENTS ARE ON SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 8TH

WELCOMING THE STRANGER: responding to asylum seekers and refugees Venue: St Anthony`s, Scotland Road Liverpool L5 5BD

11 – 11.15 Opening Prayer and reflection. John Phillips reflects on our response to the current mass move-ment of people. 11.15 – 11.45 Nature of the refugee crisis. Nadine Daniel gives a brief overview of the extent and causes of this crisis. 11.45 – 12.15 The Asylum Seeker & Refugee 1. Terry Phillips describes the work of ALM (Asylum Link Mer-seyside). 12.15 -1.45 Lunchtime Refreshments Exhibition Share the Journey On the Move Conversation. The ex-tended lunchtime gives a chance for conversation about the morning’s input. Justine Silcock will offer a chance to go through two of CAFOD’s related programmes. 1.45 – 2.15 The Asylum Seeker & Refugee 2. Terry Phillips will describe how MRANG (Merseyside Refugee & Asylum Seekers Pre & Postnatal Support Group) respond to the particular problems faced by a specific group of people. 2.15 – 2.45 Community Sponsorship Scheme. Marie Reynolds, lead CSS person at Nugent, will explain how parishes can get involved in the official diocesan response to Syrian refugees. 2.45 - 3 Closing prayer and reflection. John Phillips will bring the event to an end with reflections on what has been heard during the day. Contacts: Liverpool J & P Commission

The Historic Churches lectures will run simultaneously with the Parallel Programme event. 12.15 – 1.45 Lecture on history of St Anthony’s an historic Liverpool Irish immigrant parish 1.45 – 2.15 Lecture tour of crypt

EUCHARIST IN THE WORLD with CAFOD This event aims to bring to life the meaning of Eucharist Venue: Sacred Heart Church, Low Hill, Liverpool L7 3HJ contacts: Bernadette McIntosh & Ann Fagan

12.00 Opening prayer Each workshop consists of prayer, liturgy, reflection and personal thought/discussion, featuring stories, films and case studies from CAFOD partners. We will hear from Colombia, Bangladesh & Rohingya and El Salvador/Nicaragua. 12 – 1.30 Celebrating the relationship between creation and humanity (Preparation of Gifts) 2. - 3.30 Our common union, and being in solidarity (Eucharistic Prayer) 4. – 5.30 Being the body of Christ in the world (The Dismissal).

EUCHARIST, THE BREAD OF LIFE 5.15—6.15 pm Our Lady & St Nicholas, Liverpool Parish Church, Old Churchyard, Chapel Street, Liverpool L2 8TZ,

An ecumenical conversation about the place of the Eucharist in the life of the Church and in living our Chris-tian faith. Speakers are the Anglican Bishop of Liverpool the Rt Rev Paul Bayes, the Archbishop of Liverpool the Most Rev Malcolm McMahon OP and Rev Dr Sheryl M. Anderson, the Liverpool Methodist District Chair. There will be an opportunity for audience questions and discussion facilitated by the author and jour-nalist Clifford Longley. Free but requires advanced booking, and a printed or mobile ticket at the door: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/eucharist-the-bread-of-life-an-ecumenical-conversation-tickets-46709814312

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THE PARALLEL PROGRAMME continued

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 8TH DIAKONIA Venue: St Vincent de Paul, St James St, Liverpool. L1 5E

12.00 Opening prayer Fr Chris Fallon 12.15 END HUNGER CAMPAIGN Introduced by Church Action on Poverty (CAP) an ecumenical charity dedi-cated to tackling the root causes of poverty in the UK and narrowing the gap between rich and poor. A work-shop with Josh Fenton-Glynn, the End Hunger UK Campaign Manager. He will explain the campaign and pro-mote the campaign petition. This is an interactive session with opportunity for questions. Sign up for newslet-ters and campaign updates. 1.15 - 2.00 MARY’S MEALS Their vision is that every child receives one daily meal in their place of educa-tion and that all those who have more than they need, share with those who lack even the most basic things. They believe there is no good reason why this cannot be realised. Deacon Tony Kerrigan will introduce their work and describe how we can become involved . 2.00-3.00 'WHEN I WAS HUNGRY' Workshop with author Virginia Moffat based on Matthew 25:35. This interactive workshop will talk about what it means to the body of Christ when some of us go hungry, fo-cussing on real stories of food poverty. There will be suitable material ready for any youngsters. Virginia Moffat’s dad was born in Bootle in 1924. When her grandfather died in 1929, his widow still had three school-age children. She spent weeks traipsing round Liverpool looking for work but couldn't get any. The memory of being alone in the house with his sister and there being one single crust of bread stayed with him all his life and has always haunted Virginia. 3.00 FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY—practical responses to physical hunger. 4 - 4.30 DIAKONIA— an explanation of the role of the diaconate in the Body of Christ. Fr Chris Fallon and team. 4.30 Historic Churches programme - History of St Vincent’s Michael O’Neil 6.00 MASS

FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY—practical responses to hunger

At Nugent Kitchen, Epsom St Community Centre Epsom Way, L5 2QT 12.00 – 4.30

There will be bread making here with conversations throughout the day and especially during a shared meal

for users of food banks and policy makers. There will be no audience for this conversation during the meal

because of issues of respect and power imbalance. The conversations will be recorded and edited before be-

ing shared.

BECOMING A EUCHARISTIC COMMUNITY : the joys and the struggles.

St Michael’s Church, Horne Street, Liverpool L6 5EH 2.00—7.00 pm

St Michael’s is a parish community that practices what it preaches. The programme is being designed by pa-

rishioners and is not yet fully developed. Central to the day will be requests to visitors from other parishes to

describe their own situation so that St Michael’s can learn from them and become more welcoming and in-

clusive.

‘ON THE ALTAR OF THE WORLD ‘ Reconciliation and the Eucharist

St Philip Neri Church, 30 Catharine Street, Liverpool L8 7NL 12.00-6.00 pm

The Northern Dioceses Environmental Network, Together for the Common Good (T4CG) and Pax Christi will

explore a sacramental theology of creation ‘on the altar of the world’. Beginning and ending with meditation

on the Icon of Reconciliation and using prayer and stories, the day will explore the vision of a world where

people can live in peace, without fear of violence in any form. The day includes an inter-generational panel of

women discussing peace-making in families, in our country and globally. Talks, discussion, hospitality and

family-friendly activities.

11.00—12.00 National Justice and Peace Network AGM

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‘IN THE SHELTER OF EACH OTHER THE PEOPLE LIVE’

The theme for this year’s NJPN Conference at Swanwick in July was inspired by an old Irish proverb which suggests we all need each other to survive and thrive. This is particularly true for the weaker, more vulnerable members of our society. The main speakers suggested from their

personal experience differing ways of offering care and support.

Revd Dr Al Barrett of Hodge Hill Anglican Church, Birmingham started on the Friday evening by taking us to the wasteland at the edge of an estate, at the edge of the city of Birmingham, underneath the concrete pil-lars of the M6. Here members of his community crucified Jesus as the final act of a passion play. He went on to consider some of our edges of our society, and explore how we as Christians might inhabit them .

On Saturday David McLouglin gave us some theological insights into our mission to tackle injustice and en-dorsed the inspirational leadership of Pope Francis in calling for "a poor Church committed to the poor".

Later Sarah Teather Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service, spoke of her present experiences suggesting there was now a "kind of window" for action in the wake of the Windrush Scandal. She also spoke movingly of the visit the previous week of Cardinal Vincent Nichols to a JRS centre. I had been at conference in 2014 when Sarah was a Liberal Democrat MP and chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees. She then seemed disillusioned with the government and was stepping down at the next election. I remember her talk-ing of the “awful” block on refugees from Syria being given sanctuary in Britain. Maybe things are slightly more positive now with the Home Office Community Sponsorship Scheme?

Finally on Sunday morning John Grogan, Labour MP for Keighley since 2017, having previously been MP for Selby from 1997-2010, talked about 'An Inclusive Britain’ suggesting that to work for this we needed also to reflect on our Catholic church. He gave us ten practical points to thinks about and act on.

To hear all four talks in full follow this link to the home page of Liverpool NJPN, where they are available www.youtube.com/channel/UCQzJkymJ3su5HJKc7dbiKyQ Read more on www.justice-and-peace.org.uk/ For a set of photos email: tomormiston2015@gmail.com

Fr Colum Kelly from The Apostleship of the Sea celebrated the vigil Mass for us on the eve of ‘Good Shep-herd’ Sunday. He amusingly commented that he was not over fond of sheep before making a serious point. Jesus chose fishermen to be his disciples not shepherds. Shepherds contain and keep flocks together but fishermen go out into the deep to catch and bring in the fish. Marian Thompson

Bryan Halson adds : Sometimes when I have been at a conference one particular contribution has stood out for me, making me think more deeply and see things in a new way. Such was the case here as I listened to David McLoughlin deliver his paper “Living With Others in the Presence of Our Strange God”. I was struck by what he had to say about ‘the prophetic imagination’ and its part in the construction of a new social reality.

A key example of the prophetic imagination is to be seen in Moses’s reaction to his experience at the burning bush - that encounter with the Strange God (Exodus 3-14). Consider Moses before the encounter. Brought up in the Pharaonic court with its “fixed religion, fixed gods, and fixed society”. Now, in the burning bush, he is faced with a completely free god, the god to whom no name can be attached (“I AM WHO I AM”), and so cannot be manipulated by human beings. Moses discovers that he can (indeed must) share that freedom as an alternative religion “based on the divine freedom”, and a social reality - justice and compassion - for a people who had been the losers, the marginalised (remember their time of slavery).

Another example of the prophetic imagination is to be seen in the meeting of two - the Virgin Mary and Elizabeth. This is the meeting of two freed women (Luke 1.39-56). To Mary a new alternative to the fixed, colonised and impoverished society of Palestine is opened up through the strangeness of God’s freedom: “he has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree”. To Elizabeth the impossible is at last made real in the prophetic imagination: “blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfil-ment”.

David McLoughlin closed his presentation: “It is the significant stories we tell again and again, which enable us to find meaning in time.”

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THE SEASON OF CREATION SEPTEMBER 1- OCTOBER 4

Beginning with the World Day of Prayer for Creation on September 1 and continuing throughout the month, Christian churches and faith communities around the globe are praying, celebrating and taking action for creation. There are suggestions for activities and prayer resources at: http://seasonofcreation.org/

www.columbans.co.uk/creation-time/ https://catholicclimatemovement.global/world-day-of-prayer

A USEFUL LITURGICAL RESOURCE The Liverpool Archdiocese J & P Commission with CAFOD Liverpool prepared Creation Time resources for 2016 and 2017 containing praying with the gospels, stories from our time and Laudato Si’ . The 2018 re-source will be ready in the late Summer. This will then provide a complete course for the three years of the Church’s liturgical cycle. Download at https://jp.liverpoolcatholic.org.uk/resources/creation

A PROGRAMME ST ALBAN’S J & P GROUP IN MACCLESFIELD along with other local churches will again be following Pope Francis’ lead and celebrating 1st September as the “World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation” and also be organising a range of activities to help us recognise, take supportive action and cele-brate God’s gift of our common home.

1st September – Care of Creation Prayer Service at St Michael’s Church, Market Place, Macclesfield (SK10 1DY) at 7.00pm

7th September – Talk on “Creating Eco-spirituality – the challenges for us as Christians?” by Fr Eamonn Mulchay, Director of the Spiritan Mission and Retreat, at St Alban’s Parish Centre, Chester Road, Maccles-field SK11 8DJ at 7.30pm

17th September - Recycling, Love Food, Hate Waste by ANSA 7.30 pm at St Alban’s Parish Centre ( see above) Ansa Environmental Services Limited is a company owned and controlled by Cheshire East Borough Council.

23rd September - Reflective Ramble A 3-mile walk to reflect on and appreciate God’s creation followed by tea and cakes at Teggs Nose Country Park (SK11 0AP) at 2.00pm

4th October – Feast of St Francis of Assisi and Finale to celebrate the end of the Season of Creation Prayer Service at St Alban’s Church, Chester Road, Macclesfield (SK11 8DJ) at 8.00pm

The group has also produced ‘Walking Together’ a calendar with an action or thought for every day of the Season of Creation 2108. For a copy of the calendar of events and personal actions to guide you through this Season of Creation or for any other information please contact Bernadette Bailey at dwbailey@btopenworld.com or 07831 647928 or www.stalbanmacc.org.uk/jandp.html#events A CHALLENGE Consume less plastic Why should we be concerned with plastics in the things we buy? Pope Francis says in Laudato Si’: “Purchasing is always a moral and not simply economic act ..… the issue of environmental degradation challenges us to examine our life-style”. Plastic now pollutes every corner of our earth. Evidence shows that since the Second World War humans have coated the earth entirely in plastics. Our plastic bags, bottles, compact discs, cigarette tips, tooth brushes are in landfill, have floated across the oceans and sunk deep to the sea floors. A plastic bottle takes on average 450 years to degrade and we produce 300 million tonnes of plastic each year. We cannot change the past but we can reduce our use of plas-tics now. More information at: www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/24/plastic-new-epoch-human-damage https://lessplastic.co.uk/9-tips-living-less-plastic/

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A reflection from Fr Paul Hypher* The last Eucharistic Congress to take place in this country was in 1908. At it Fr. Herbert Lucas SJ, a key-note speaker, talking of the Eucharist as the Sacra-ment of Divine Condescension, quoted Fr. Martin-dale: “To our mind at least far more marvellous than the great pageants of Corpus Christi - when with all royal pomp of banner and incense and vestment and thundered Pange Lingua, the King moves through streets and squares - are the hidden processions, such as that when, in the early days of persecution, the Christian acolyte carried Christ, secretly, through crowds of moneymakers and pleasure-seekers, who knew nothing of his neighbourhood; and daily into slums and courts of our great towns, as foul and pes-tilential as those of old Rome, the reeking courts of London” (i)

In fact the public procession of the Blessed Sacra-ment through the streets of London did not happen; it was banned, amid intense legal wrangling, by Mr. Asquith who felt it risked causing sectarian riots.

What did happen was that huge crowds, filling the streets all around the Cathedral, from the British Isles (including Ireland) and from France and Belgium (the Congress was bilingual) - fell to their knees in deep devotion when the Pope's Legate Cardinal Vin-cenzo Vannutelli, blessed them from the Cathedral balcony with the blessed Sacrament. The devotion and peacefulness of all those many thousands of or-dinary Catholics became itself the profoundest of witnesses to faith, untainted by any sectarian dem-onstration or conflict.

St. John Chrysostom (c. 345-407AD) says: Would you honour the body of Christ? Do not despise his naked-ness; do not honour him here in church clothed in silk vestments and then pass him by unclothed and frozen outside. Remember that he who said 'This is my Body' and made good his words, also said 'You saw me hungry and gave me no food', and 'in so far as you did not do it to one of these, you did not do it to me'.

In the first sense the body of Christ does not need clothing but worship from a pure heart. In the sec-ond sense it does need clothing and all the care we can give it. ... God has no need of golden vessels but of golden hearts. (ii) For John Chrysostom a gulf be-tween worship and compassionate justice is not merely a scandal, it is a threat to the integrity body of Christ.

In the Gospel of John (Chapter 13) during that last meal before Jesus' Passion, the institution of the Eucharist is omitted. Instead Jesus 'institutes' 'The Washing of the Feet' as his ultimate act, as the ser-vant-slave, prior to his Passion. For Jesus this act is the practical expression of the kind of sacrificial self-giving which is required both by his dying on the cross - as expressed in His laying aside his garments and taking them up again - and by his self-giving for us in the Eucharist.

It is through both of these actions that the Father's forgiving love, especially for the poorest, is manifest. The unleavened bread of the Passover is the bread of the slaves escaping from Egypt. At the Passover Se-der the leader declares: This is the bread of suffering, the poor, humble bread which our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. Come in hungry stranger and eat with us. Come in homeless wanderer and celebrate the Passover in our home. It is to these words, that Jesus later in the Seder added his Eucharist words, spoken over an extra portion of bread which he shared among his disciples. Here in word, presence and act is the meaning of Eucharist.

No wonder Paul was so shocked when he found that the Christians in Corinth were 'shaming the poor' by ignoring them and their needs at their Eucharists (I Cor 11.21); it was a sacrilegious abuse of the Eucha-rist. For Paul it is wrong to prize religious experience and ignore commitment to the poor. If we can't find Christ in the poor (Matthew 25, 45) then we cannot know or understand God.

As James, speaking of a similar scandal in his commu-nity (James 2.5.) says ' It was those who are poor ac-cording to the world that God chose to be rich in faith and to be the heirs to the kingdom.' When we in 2018 place our gifts on the altar, do we reflect that those who 'have something against us' are probably the poor? (Mat 5.23). Reverence for the poor is in-trinsic to reverence for the Eucharist.

When we say 'Amen' to the words 'Body of Christ',

thus expressing our belief in the Real Presence of

Christ - body, soul and divinity - do we also recognize

that this 'Amen' simultaneously entails recognition of

the presence of the suffering Christ in the poor, mak-

ing a commitment to them? Does our meditation

before the exposed Blessed Sacrament, include

meditation on the presence of Christ today the per-

secuted Church (Acts 9.4-5) and in the poor?

EUCHARIST AND POVERTY

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Eucharist and Poverty, continued from opposite page

This intrinsic relationship between Eucharist and commitment to the Poor was apparent from the li-turgical practice of the very early Church. Somehow it seems to have been lost in our Eucharistic rites today. I certainly doubt that a poor person would notice that we are a Church of and for the Poor.

Perhaps we can start raising awareness again by sim-ply making sure that our Churches and their facilities are always places where our Eucharistic commitment to the poor is made visible. Even have all Sunday of-fertory collections designated for charities and our offerings for the maintenance of parish given as Standing Orders, and cheques, envelopes, etc in

weekly retiring collections - not the other way round!

How powerful was that act of simply opening St. Clement's Church, in the middle of the night to make it a safe place for the care of the victims of that tragic and disastrous Grenfell fire. At a stroke, faith and practical compassion could be seen to be insepa-rable.

(i) 19th Eucharistic Congress, Westminster 1908 Sands & Company (London) 1909. (ii) St. John Chrysostom Homily 50, 3-4 * This article came from Lancaster Faith & Justice

Commission Parish News Bulletin July 2018 . Thank

you to Margaret McSherry for permission to use it.

YOUR LOCAL PANTRY—unlock king food poverty

Launched in 2014, Stockport Homes and Church Action on Poverty have successfully developed four ‘Your Local Pantry’ schemes across Stockport. A full report on these by Sarah Purcell with Naomi Maynard came out in June 2018. See www.church-poverty.org.uk/pantry/report . The initiative is now being rolled out across the UK. Communities are invited to set up their own affiliated Pantries, to emulate the success in Stockport and unlock food poverty in their area.

Pantries go beyond the food bank model, creating a sustainable and long-term solution to food poverty. Members pay a small weekly fee, typically £2.50, for which they can choose at least ten items of food each week, along with additional opportunities of volunteering and training. Interviewees reported improved fi-nancial positions, improved health and wellbeing and reduced isolation. Pantries had allowed them to have enough money to pay for essential bills, to save for Christmas or to visit family. The report also found that for every £1 invested, Pantries have generated a £6 return in social value

Tanya King, Social Inclusion Manager at Stockport Homes, said: Food poverty is a reality as incomes stag-nate with little prospect of increasing. The Pantry model is an effective way to make sure that people’s budg-ets go further. The benefits of Pantries are numerous: they provide breathing space for struggling families; they offer fresh food to households that would otherwise be limited to cheap, less healthy food; and they tackle social isolation. One Pantry member said: With the food bank, I feel like I’m lowering myself. I’d rather go without food. And it’s local, people I know are there. The Pantry feels different because you have paid and you are making a choice on the food you take home. Find out more at www.yourlocalpantry.co.uk

WHICH CAP? In June the local URC in Marple invited Gareth Thompson of Christians against Poverty (CAP ) to talk. This CAP was started in Bradford in 1996 but has grown rapidly and now has projects throughout the country. Essentially, their mission is to provide advice on debt and other related issues especially benefit matters. They are clear about their Christian commitment and are prepared to pray with people if it seems appropri-ate. But Gareth emphasised that all people are helped – Christian or not. Financial advisors based in Brad-ford give advice to the workers ‘in the field’. Several people were confused—they had expected to hear of the present work of Church Action on Poverty also CAP. This CAP is probably better known to J & P supporters. It is an ecumenical campaigning organisation, aim-ing to shake up both the Church and wider society. But they too offer support, advice and help to people in poverty. It is confusing! Both websites are worth a visit. Christians against Poverty https://capuk.org Church Action on Poverty www.church-poverty.org.uk

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To mark this wonderful occasion we are offering the comments of Professor Michael E. Lee which first appeared in Romero News July 2018 and are used with permission of the Romero Trust.

Asked ‘What’s so special about Romero? Professor Lee replied: Karl Rahner, the great Jesuit theologian, famously argued that with Vatican II the Catholic Church en-tered a new era in which it became a truly global Church. With the canonization of Oscar Romero, it now has a saint who not only represents our world today, but is a guide for how one can live an authen-tic Christian life in the face of important global chal-lenges.

Conversion Romero is one of the great examples of conversion in our day. This might sound odd considering that he was a lifelong Roman Catholic who began studies for the priesthood as a teenager. Yet, we see a radical change in his life when at age 59, he became Archbishop of San Salvador. While he had always been charitable to the poor, Romero became aware of the structural causes of poverty and how those demanded something new from him. In the face of violence unleashed against any who would speak up for justice, Romero became the most prominent voice in his country denouncing that violence and defending human rights.

Romero’s conversion was not so much the rejection of his earlier life or faith, but a deepening of them. Romero’s life-long quest for God gained a new depth when he discovered God in the reality of the poor. Struggling against sin was not just a personal endeav-our but a call to fight against the ways that other people were being deprived of their God-given dig-nity. Romero recognized that ignorance and privilege can blind good people to the ways that sin dominates our world. He calls all people to that awareness of the reality of the poor and marginalised and con-fronts us with the daily demand to conversion—a conversion that both “turns away” from that sin, and “turns toward” full communion with our neighbours and God.

Discipleship Both in his own life and as the head of the institu-tional church in his country, Romero placed the real-ity of the poor as the central focus for Christian disci-

pleship. In doing so, he demonstrated the necessary political dimension of faith.

Unfortunately, in centuries past, it seemed the main calling of the Christian was to turn away from the world and its problems, looking within and disdaining everything, and everyone, who was other. During his ministry, Romero was often criticised by his oppo-nents, even fellow Catholics, for “meddling in poli-tics.” He was told to stay in his place and only talk about “spiritual” things. This was simply inadequate for today’s world and the demands of the gospel to bring good news to it.

Oscar Romero dedicated himself to prayer, devoted himself to serving God, and saw both of those tasks as having profoundly political dimensions. Poverty, human rights abuses, and injustice were not ‘worldly’ problems to be ignored, or even secondary questions to those of faith. No, Romero became convinced that the question about faith and politics was not “if” but “how,” and that “how” was found in the world of the poor. Though always wary of how political parties and ideologies can become idols, Romero shows how discipleship, the living out of one’s faith commit-ment, must have a political dimension that attempts to make the world more like the reign of God that Jesus preached.

Martyrdom In one of the great dramas of Christian history, the twentieth century could be called the century of mar-tyrs. Oscar Romero helps us to understand the mean-ing of martyrdom today in new ways. Even before his assassination, Romero was linked to martyrdom be-cause he presided over the funeral masses of many who were killed for their faithful struggles against injustice. These martyrs inspired Romero to continue his ministry with courage even as the death threats against him intensified each day.

Traditionally, if a martyr’s death is understood as “in hatred of the faith,” then Romero’s case demon-strates how many martyrs today are killed for a faith that does justice. They should inspire us all to protect the lives of those working for a better world and to join in those efforts as a genuine calling of the faith. As Pope Francis has made clear, our world is charac-terised by grave inequality that stems from unjust structures and retains the scars of colonisation and slavery.

‘A SAINT FOR OUR TIMES’ OCTOBER 14 THE CANONISATION OF THE BLESSED OSCAR ROMERO IN ROME

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TIME OUT ON TUESDAYS -Sept 11th; Oct 9th; Nov 13th and Dec 11th. SATURDAYS are Sept 22nd; Oct 27th; and Nov 24th

An Ecumenical Quiet Day for everyone at The Convent of Our Lady of the Cenacle, Tithebarn Grove, Lance Lane, Wavertree, Liverpool L15 6TW 10.00am—4.00pm I

Input and time for individual quiet prayer and reflection. Cost £10

CHESTER TO NEWPORT PEACE TRAIN WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 24 Aim : to ask Parliament to ensure that the UK becomes a signatory to the Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty.

A number of the Hereford Peace Council and supporters will ride a regularly scheduled Arriva train on the South Wales/North Wales line from Chester to New-port. At each stop along the route, they will collect any written messages and add them to the 'mail bag'.

Messages from Chester will be delivered to the Peace Train at the entrance to Chester sta-tion. If you wish to take part, we’ll let you know, nearer the date, the train leaving time and our final arrangements. Contact Dai Owen, joint-convenor Chester CND on 01244 679051 or email chestercnd@gmail.com Chester CND will organise an opportunity for a press photograph as we hand over our letters to the Hereford Group, important for reaching out to the public here.

20 YEARS OF THE DEBT JUSTICE MOVEMENT—A CELEBRATION on Saturday 29 September at The Birmingham & Midland Institute, 9 Margaret St, Birmingham B3 3BS.

A day of remembering the successes of the debt justice movement over the last twenty years and an oppor-tunity to learn about the struggles that lie ahead. Catch up with old friends and meet new ones over a deli-cious lunch, learn about debt issues in 2018 and reflect together on the legacy of the global Jubilee 2000 movement. We’ll be joined by Ann Pettifor, Asad Rehman, Tim Jones and Sarah-Jayne Clifton . Come for a bit of the day or the whole thing – it’s up to you!

What you can expect on the day: 10.30am-12.15pm: Workshops on the debt crises of 2018 12.15-1.15pm: Lunch (with vegetarian and vegan options) 1.15-1.45pm: Key note speech 2.00-3.00pm: City centre action in Birmingham 3.15-3.45pm: Refreshments back at the BMI 3.45-5.00pm: Closing speakers and songs .To register contact clare@jubileedebt.org.uk or phone 02073 244728

We’re asking for a voluntary donation of between £2 – £7 each, to help cover the costs of room hire, refresh-ments and lunch, depending on what you can afford. (The event itself costs more than £15 per person to run).

A SAINT FOR OUR TIMES continued from page 8 Followers of Christ must live and proclaim an authen-tic good news to those who are poor and marginal-ised today. Their spirituality must be one that unites the love of God and neighbour and sees the face of Christ in the many who are crucified. Oscar Romero, murdered for his courageous defence of human rights, offers inspiration for this great challenge by giving new meaning to conversion, discipleship, and martyrdom. He is a saint for our times.

BOOK: REVOLUTIONARY SAINT—THE THEOLOGICAL LEG-ACY OF OSCAR ROMERO by Michael E. Lee. Orbis Books. This recently published volume is highly recommended by the Romero Trust. It is available in bookshops at £20 per copy. But it can be purchased from the Romero Trust at the special price of £13.00 (post free). Email romerotrust@gmail.com or by post Archbishop Romero Trust PO Box 70227 London E9 9BR

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‘DEATH PENALTY IS ALWAYS INADMISSABLE’ Pope Francis

After an audience with Pope Francis earlier this year, and following his approval, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has said it has made changes to the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding the death penalty. Pope Francis has approved a new revision of paragraph number 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, according to which "a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanc-tions imposed by the state," thus "the death penalty is inadmissible."

The decision was announced by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in a 'Letter to the Bishops' dated 1 August and signed by the Prefect, Cardinal Luis Francisco Ladaria.

The new text for paragraph 2267: “Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safe-guarding the common good.

Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which en-sure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibil-ity of redemption.

Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that "the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person" (1), and she works with determination for its abo-lition worldwide".

(1) Address to Participants in the Meeting organised by the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New

Evangelization, 11 October 2017: L'Osservatore Romano, 13 October 2017.

AN INTERVIEW WITH SISTER HELEN PREJEAN

Sister Helen Prejean is known for her best-selling book, Dead Man Walking (1993), based on her experiences with two convicts on Death Row for whom she served as spiritual adviser before their executions. She was interviewed by William Crawley on BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme on August 5th.

What does the Pope’s announcement mean for you as a campaigner? I am delighted. I had a chance to have direct dialogue with Pope John Paul, and the part of the catechism that I was urging that he change was the way they kept upholding the right of state to take life, and I was looking for principled opposition, with no exceptions. Because once you give the state the right to take life then you give over to the state that they can set the criteria and mechanisms for killing people, and it can never work. So what we have here is the long development in the history of Catholic church, 1600 years go-ing back to time of Constantine, when it was a very violent society and violence was used to try and keep society safe. So what changed? This was in my dialogue with Pope John Paul. Then Pope Francis clinched it, because I said to the Pope: “when I’ve been walking with a man to execution and he has leg irons on and handcuffs and he’s rendered completely defenceless and he says ‘Sister, please pray that God holds up my life’ so I said to the Pope “How can we call this defending society to render a human being defenceless and intentionally kill him when we have prisons and a way to keep society safe.” So we need principled opposi-tion without any exceptions to the death penalty as it’s against the inviolable dignity of persons.

So that’s now what you have, a very clear moral statement, a global opposition from the Catholic church to the death penalty. Do you think there will be some within the church, maybe some bishops and some parts of the church, who will disagree with this and think there are moral reasons why you can defend execution in some cases? Oh absolutely. What we have here are words and a document, and you have to get words off a page and into the hearts and minds of the people and there’s a journey of conversion involved in it as people have to

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An Interview with Sr Helen Prejean continued from previous page

deal with their outrage at terrible crime and come to a moral position where they can embrace human rights. At least the policy and the principle is clear now, no exceptions, but now the work is still the same - to awaken the hearts and the minds of the people.

I see the Catholic governor of Nebraska has already said it will have no effect whatsoever in his state. I just wonder about Catholics who serve on the benches – judges who may have to hand down the death sentences or Catholics who serve as jurors in the United States who might vote for the death penalty, or governors who may refuse clemency. Are they then sinning if they do so? It is not my job to say you’re a sinner, but it is part of who I am as a moral being to know when something immoral is happening. Compartmentalisation is a genius part of human beings where we separate things out. As if, as if any human being can do that! Because what faith does it gives us moral values so that this com-partmentalisation that faith can be left at the door, and governors like Ricketts in Nebraska he is doing the same thing. “That’s what I do on Sunday but now I am a governor and I have got to govern and I have got to run for re-election” - and political expediency takes over moral standards.

I see that Pope Francis when he was addressing a criminal justice event some years ago used a very interest-ing expression to describe life imprisonment as a penalty. He said that is a kind of hidden ‘death penalty.’ Do you think in the mind of Pope Francis there is a kind of moral equation between the death sentence and life imprisonment, and if so, could that be the next move of the Catholic church to give guidance on the justice of a life imprisonment sentence? Yes, that is already afoot, it’s already beginning to happen, because when you see that a person gets sen-tenced to life without the possibility of parole that is a death sentence: you are sentenced to die in prison and it curtails the redemption or the way people can change and be reformed in their lives and become a different person. It cuts that off, so it is a kind of death sentence, and there’s a growing awareness in the US about that – that life sentences without parole are their own kind of death sentence and it needs to be re-formed. We need to have great penal reform in this country. We have many many wrongs in our penal justice system, mainly because we have a basis that people should be punished for what they do wrong—and harsh punishment. I don’t know where we get this, instead of seeing prisons as places of rehabilitation and restora-tion of life.

Just finally Sister who have given so much of your life to campaigning for a change in the law about the death penalty and supporting people who are on death row. Do you ever think to yourself perhaps I maybe should have given a bit more of my time to those who are the victims of crime? In a way I also serve the victims of crime because I have come to understand from them, from meeting many

many victims’ families, how the death penalty revictimises them. So when New Jersey had a legislative de-

bate about abolishing the death penalty 10 years ago, 62 murder victims’ families came to those hearings and

said “Don’t feel for me. The death penalty puts us through a process where we wait for a justice that never

comes”. So we have the victims’ families themselves. So I think both arms of the cross of Jesus reaching out

to both sides and that’s what I have tried to do in my life and continue to do so.

PRISONS SUNDAY October 14 AND PRISONERS WEEK October 14—21

An ecumenical Prisons Week Committee was formed in 1975 to encourage Christians to focus their thoughts and prayers, upon prisoners and their families, victims of offenders, prison staff and all those working for prisoners and their families. The Committee pub-lishes an information and prayer leaflet which is distributed to all who are planning to lead worship on Prisons Sunday. www.prisonadvice.org.uk/prisonerssunday

You can visit the Prisons Week website on www.prisonsweek.org for additional materials including prayers, posters, worship resources and books.

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Liverpool J &P Fieldworker Steve Atherton J&P Office, LACE Croxteth Drive, Sefton Park, Liverpool L17 1AA Tel: 0151 522 1080 s.atherton@rcaol.co.uk

facebook.com/jpliverpooljp www.twitter.com/@liverpooljandp

Liverpool Chair: Justine Silcock Terry Phillips

Liverpool Office Secretary Maria Hardacre Tel: 0151 522 1081

Shrewsbury Secretary: Maura Garside Tel: 0781 1679055

Editor of MouthPeace Marian Thompson 37 Dale Road, Marple Stockport SK6 6EZ Tel: 0161 427 7254 marian37et@gmail.com

The opinions expressed in MouthPeace are the views of the individual contribu-tors or organisations con-cerned and do not neces-sarily reflect those of the Justice and Peace Commis-sions of the dioceses of Shrewsbury and Liverpool

Edited and typeset by Marian Thompson

and printed and distributed at LACE

https://jp.liverpoolcatholic.org.uk/ www.jp-shrewsburydiocese.org.uk

Copy date for next issue 1/11/2018. Don’t forget

to send in reports of events

mauragarside@hotmail.com

DIARY DATES

SEPTEMBER

1 DAY OF PRAYER FOR CARE OF CREATION page 5

1 Sept – 4 Oct SEASON OF CREATION see page 5

7 “CREATING ECO CHRISTIANITY -the challenges for us as Christians” talk Fr Eamonn Mulchay St Alban’s Parish Centre, Chester Road, Macclesfield SK11 8DJ at 7.30pm see page 5 for full group programme

7 –8 EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS in Liverpool The Parallel Programme of events see pages 2 & 3

11 &22 QUIET DAY at Cenacle see page 9

16-23 WORLD WEEK OF PEACE IN PALESTINE & ISRAEL : Investing in Young People paxchristi.org.uk/news-and-events/events-calendar/

21 INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE https://internationaldayofpeace.org/

21 CAFOD QUIZ NIGHT at Our Lady’s Parish Centre Ellesmere Port Town Centre 7.30 pm admission £3 adults £3 and children £1 which includes Fairtrade refreshments at the interval. All money raised will go to the Cafod project in Ethiopia Connect 2 . Contact Tony Walsh on 0151 355 6419

29 JUBILEE DEBT CAMPAIGN CELEBRATING 20 YEARS in Birmingham see page 9

29 Sept – 5 Oct GOOD MONEY WEEK www.goodmoneyweek.com

OCTOBER

BLACK HISTORY MONTH www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk

5 CAFOD HARVEST FAST DAY https://cafod.org.uk

9 QUIET DAY at Cenacle see page 9

10 WORLD HOMELESS DAY www.worldhomelessday.org

10 WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY www.mentalhealth.org.uk

14 CANONISATION OF OSCAR ROMERO in Rome see pages 8 & 9

14-21 PRISONERS SUNDAY AND PRISON WEEK www.prisonsweek.org

14-21 WEEK OF PRAYER FOR WORLD PEACE www.weekofprayerforworldpeace.com

19 CAFOD QUIZ NIGHT see Sept. 21

21-28 ONE WORLD WEEK The world is changing - How about us? www.oneworldweek.org

23 ROMERO MASS AND CELEBRATION Salford Ca-thedral 12.10. Celebrant Bishop John Arnold. The mass will be followed by refreshments and a talk by Steve Atherton, the J&P worker in Liverpool, who visited El Salvador in November 2017. Contact CAFOD in Salford on 0161 705 0605 or salford@cafod.org.uk for more details

24 CHESTER TO NEWPORT PEACE TRAIN see p.9

27 QUIET DAY at Cenacle see page 9

NOVEMBER 13 QUIET DAY at Cenacle see page 9

13 CHESTER WORLD DEVELOPMENT FORUM Speaker local firefighter Anthony McCarthy on his ongoing work with the project in Nepal, “Classrooms in the Clouds”. The Unity Centre, Cuppin St Ches-ter, CH1 2BN 6:45 pm - 9:00 pm

16 CAFOD QUIZ NIGHT See Sept.21 24 QUIET DAY at Cenacle see page 9